CleanEquity Monaco 2015 Awards

Excellence in the field of Environmental Technology Research

Winner

The Nano Membrane Toilet

The Nano Membrane Toilet will treat human waste in the house without external energy or water. The toilet flush uses a rotating mechanism to transport the mixture into the toilet without demanding water whilst simultaneously blocking odour and the user's view of the waste. Solids separation is principally accomplished through sedimentation. Loosely bound water is separated using low glass transition temperature hollow-fibre membranes, facilitating water transport in the vapour state rather than as a liquid and yielding high rejection of pathogens and some odorous volatile compounds. The water is recondensed and drains into a collection vessel for safe reuse at the household level. The residual solids are transported by a mechanical screw into a gasifier, which will convert them into ash and energy to power the membrane processes.

Runner Up

Azotic Technologies

Azotic Technologies is currently developing a natural nitrogen technology that provides a sustainable solution to fertiliser overuse. This is a new platform technology which provides every cell in the plant with the ability to fix approximately 50% of the plant's nitrogen needs from the air thereby reducing the dependency on nitrogen based fertilisers. This sustainable nitrogen technology will offer a global solution to help reduce nitrogen pollution and also boost agriculture. It is environmentally friendly and applies to all crops.

Excellence in the field of Environmental Technology Development

Winner

Emefcy

Emefcy is an award-winning wastewater treatment company, pioneering the development and commercialization of disruptive energy-efficient and cost-efficient wastewater treatment and reuse products. Emefcy is run by experienced domain experts founders and a professional managing team. Highly demanded distributed reuse applications are currently limited by the high costs for small scale plants. Emefcy has developed two technologies: SABRE and EBR, which address the above limitations in municipal and industrial plants. SABRE (Spiral Aerobic Biofilm Reactor) is a simple, scalable, decentralized wastewater treatment with 90% less power consumption. EBR (Electrogenic Bio-Reactor) treats industrial wastewater and generates green electricity.

Runner Up

Liquid Light

Liquid Light develops and licenses process technology to make major chemicals from low-cost, globally-abundant carbon dioxide (CO2). Chemical producers have the potential for lower costs and greater sustainability; firms with waste CO2, like ethanol producers, can turn that waste into revenue; and brands that use large amounts of plastics in their packaging can offer a more sustainably-packaged product. Liquid Light's first process is for the production of ethylene glycol (MEG), with a $27 billion annual market. Liquid Light's core technology is centered on low-energy catalytic electrochemistry to convert CO2 to multi-carbon chemicals. It is backed by more than 100 patents and applications, and extends to multiple chemicals with large existing markets, including ethylene glycol, propylene, isopropanol, methyl-methacrylate and acetic acid.

Excellence in the field of Environmental Technology Commercialisation

Winner

LUXeXceL

LUXeXceL's patented additive process is invented to 3Dprint smooth components. Special designed extremely precise digital printer platforms jet individual droplets of UV-curable materials via a unique fluent-dynamics-management approach of jetting, flowing and merging droplets before curing. Allowing LUXeXceL to print optical components directly from a CAD file without post-processing. The fast and scalable process enables optics designers to walk a perfect route from fast prototyping, easy iterating to manufacturing the exact required volumes in days! Interesting for various industries as new optical products and functions will arrive on stage and optics can be tailored to every application, project or even single product. Via an online platform with design tools, shops, uploading of files the company creates a central position in the Optics & Photonics Industries. The No.1 plastic Optics Manufacturing of the 21st Century!

Runner Up

Algenol Biofuels

Algenol is a global biotechnology company whose patented algae technology platform produces the four most important fuels (ethanol, gasoline, jet and diesel). Algenol's proprietary Direct to Ethanol® process harnesses the incredible productivity of its unique strain of algae to drive industry-leading yields of 8,000 total gallons of liquid fuel per acre per year (over 20 times corn ethanol), and requires only sunlight, saltwater and CO2 for production. The combination of this productivity with patented photobioreactors and proprietary downstream separation enables low-cost fuel production at under $1.30 per gallon. Algenol's novel process utilizes industrial CO2 as the primary feedstock and produces freshwater as a by-product without using arable land, thereby converting waste CO2 into green fuels and creating a revolutionary link between sustainable energy and real emissions reduction.